Ratio of coaches to managers

We are looking at introducing formal coaching into our organisation (consisting of 500+ managers in EU to be delivered by HR across the EU). We were hoping from your experience if you could advise us how we go about calculating how many coaches we would need to train? Should we use a ratio?

Questions like this make me nervous. The organisation is not an existing client (although they clearly have some good values) and I don’t know where they’re at, but there’s a lot of strategic thinking needed on introducing coaching before these kind of fine details can be considered.

Here’s my formal reply in case it’s useful:

I don’t know if there’s such a thing as an “industry standard” ratio for coaches to ‘clients’, and much would depend on how frequently sessions were going to be scheduled and how long the coaching relationship was going to last.

Off the top of my head, start with 1:5 and expand or contract as you all gain experience.

Whilst writing, I would also suggest that there are many other things you need to consider especially given differing cultures across the EU:

It is essential to gain role model support from the top leadership (walking the talk as well as talking the talk)

The coaches drawn from HR must receive high quality training

The coaches must be encouraged to support each other and have regular best practice sharing sessions

Allow the coaches to consult with external coaches to develop their approach

Decide how the success of the coaching will be evaluated and measure it robustly

Promote coaching success stories loudly once they begin to happen (and they will)

Reward those that participate meaningfully in the coaching process

Make sure all other company training is supportive of the coaching initiative